Perry Angers Critics With 62 Last-minute Nominations

Perry Seeks Lasting Influence With Last-minute Appointments

Hartford Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry may be on her way out of office, but in her final days at city hall, she is doing all she can to ensure her influence remains.

Perry this week introduced a slew of city council resolutions that would fill 62 vacancies on a long list of city boards and commissions. Many of the posts have been vacant for months, if not years.

It is not clear whether the council will confirm the appointments. Perry, who has served as mayor for six years, has had only four supporters on the nine-member body. But in a recent vote on whether to terminate the city manager's contract, Majority Leader Yolanda Castillo joined Perry's faction.

No one has suggested that the people Perry nominated are not qualified for the posts, but some believe it is not proper for her to fill the boards with her supporters just as she is leaving office.

"I am outraged. I am mad. It is bad will," said Councilman Eugenio Caro, who will take over as deputy mayor when the new council is sworn in Dec. 7. "She lost the election. She should give the opportunity to the new mayor and council to fill these posts."

Many of the appointees are longtime political supporters of the mayor or her allies or have recently made contributions to their campaigns. In several cases, Perry has proposed putting a particular supporter on more than one board.

And some of the people they are replacing supported Perry's mayoral opponents, Deputy Mayor Henrietta S. Milward and Mayor-elect Michael P. Peters.

If Perry's appointments are approved, she would remove the chairmen of the zoning board of appeals and the commission on the city plan, two of the more important city boards. Other boards would be reshaped, with the new appointees outnumbering current members.

Perry, who recently returned from a two-week vacation, did not respond to messages left at her office and home.

Peters said he does not mind that the mayor would fill some of the vacant posts before leaving office next month. But 62 appointments at once is excessive, he said.

"At the very least, the mayor should have discussed it with me and the council-elect," Peters said Friday.

Peters said he realized that he had to be careful in his criticism, because the last city council -- which Perry's coalition defeated -- appointed him near the end of its term two years ago to the Hartford Civic Center and Coliseum Commission.

City Councilman Nicholas J. Fusco, a Perry ally, said the slew of last-minute appointments is part of an effort to force the new city council members to give Fusco and his allies some respect. Fusco and three other Perry supporters won council seats. They will share the council with three Republicans and two Democrats who opposed Perry.

"It is a matter of political protection," Fusco said. "If they are not going to invite us to the well to drink the water, we will just dig our own well and do what we have to."

Perry's appointments to the commission on the city plan would fill seven of the commission's 10 spots. Three of the appointments would fill vacancies, but the others would force out current members whose terms either have expired or are about to.

"We have been down members for many years," said Dale A. Ryan, who would be removed from the commission by Perry's appointments. "I find it ironic that at the eleventh and three-quarters hour our wishes are being granted."

Ryan, who has been a member of the commission for 12 years and was recently elected chairwoman, supported Milward's bid for mayor. She is also the chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Eunice S. Groark, a former Hartford corporation counsel and city council member.

The commision is in the midst of writing a new downtown development plan, which would be disrupted by the departure of so many members at once, Ryan and commission member Sebastian Sbriglio said. Sbrigilo, who supported Peters' campaign, would lose his seat.

"She is not doing something that is good for the city. She is doing something for her own purpose," Sbrigilo said. "At the last minute to change all these people -- it is the last thing she is doing wrong."

Among the people Perry would like to add to the commission are outgoing Councilwoman Louise B. Simmons, who was a Perry ally, and Beverly Fonfara, a Perry supporter and the sister of state Rep. John W. Fonfara, D-Hartford.

W. Ross Jones, who Perry has nominated to join the city's zoning board of appeals, said he did not realize Perry had nominated 62 appointees all at once, or that his appointment would result in the removal of the zoning board's chairman, Donald R. Biancamano.

The board of appeals is one of the most powerful in the city, deciding when to grant variances to property owners who want to develop their land. Jones, a state Department of Social Services employee, said he supported the campaign of Perry ally Elizabeth Horton Sheff, who was re-elected to the council.

Among the other appointees who are Perry allies are:

Shirley A. Surgeon, who helped run Perry's North End campaign headquarters, who would be appointed to the Hartford Library Board of Directors.

Thomas Wright, the former president of the National Association

for the Advancement of Colored People and a longtime civil rights activist, who would join the city's recently formed commission on workplace rights. Wright contributed $50 to Perry's campaign, Marichal B. Monts, who works on the mayor's staff, would join the commission on cultural affairs and the commission on cultural and ethnic diversity. Monts is a professional singer and a college music teacher